1. Field of the Invention
This invention is used in the technical field of a sweeper for sweeping a street surface, a road surface, a floor surface, etc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bulky dust sweeper which is especially suitable for sweeping a light-weight and bulky refuse material (hereinafter simply referred to as "bulky dust") such as, for example, fallen leaves, dead leaves, paper and the like.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As tools for automatically cleaning or sweeping bulky dust scattered in the street, road, parks, factories, etc., there have been known and used sweepers, vacuum cleaners or the like.
The conventional sweepers comprise side brushes for gathering bulky dust together and a main brush mounted on a bottom portion of a vehicle body and adapted to sweep such gathered bulky dust into a hopper. On the other hand, the conventional vacuum cleaner comprises a sucking port and a blower for acting on the sucking port in order to suck bulky dust therein.
However, the conventional sweepers have the disadvantage that the hopper is soon filled with dust of comparatively light-weight specific gravity and bulky size. Therefore, the dust collected in the hopper must be removed frequently. Moreover, the conventional sweeper is incapable of sweeping a large quantity of dust at one time because the dust of comparatively light-weight specific gravity readily overflows out of the inlet port of the hopper and remains there as dust not swept. In order to sweep and clean such overflowed dust, it is necessary to perform the sweeping operation repeatedly. This is troublesome indeed. In addition, the secondary processing and the secondary transportation of the bulky dust, which had been removed from the hopper, are very troublesome too because the dust as a whole is bulky.
The method for vacuuming up bulky dust using a conventional vacuum cleaner also has various kinds of problems chiefly because the material is bulky dust as in the case using a conventional sweeper and therefore, is incapable of treating a large quantity of dust at one time. Particularly, in the event the dust is wet and stuck to a street surface, a floor surface, etc., it is impossible to vacuum up such dust complete with a vacuum cleaner because there always remain dust not swept. This method is incapable of sweeping bulky dust efficiently and in a proper manner, and is basically inferior to the conventional sweeper.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to overcome the above-mentioned problems inherent in the prior art.